


Branches Grafted

by qwanderer



Series: cherry trees can grow in space [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nightmares, Post-S6, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 17:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15054641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwanderer/pseuds/qwanderer
Summary: "You're always here to catch me," Shiro says."Most important thing you ever showed me how to do," Keith agrees.





	Branches Grafted

**Author's Note:**

> S6 Spoilers!

Black lets them know that it has the course, following the other lions to Earth, and Keith and Shiro let go of the control bars to pull off their helmets so they can kiss properly. Their lips press against each other more firmly now, and then it's slow and intense as they taste each other thoroughly. 

Shiro pulls back because the lack of air is making him feel dizzy - at least that's what he thinks, but catching his breath doesn't make him feel any less off balance. 

"What can I do for you?" Keith asks, now that his mouth isn't otherwise occupied. The relaxed droop of his eyelids clearly implies a certain type of request. 

"Actually," Shiro says, then trails off. 

"Yeah?" 

"I know you've been waiting a long time for me. And I don't want to ask you to make it any longer. But can we... take it slow? I'm still getting used to the whole 'having a body' thing again." 

Keith's frown looks like he's trying really hard to be offended, or at least disappointed, but he can't quite manage either. Instead a soft smile curls one corner of his mouth, then spreads from there. 

"I can be patient," he says. "For you." 

Shiro sighs, and leans into Keith. It's a state of affairs that feels more and more normal, and Shiro finds he likes it more than he ever thought he would. 

"You're always here to catch me," Shiro says. 

"Most important thing you ever showed me how to do," Keith agrees. It's matter-of-fact, not awed, the way Keith sometimes has been when talking about him, and Shiro knows that Keith really is ready for this, for them. 

Shiro kind of wants to kick himself for not being ready, too. 

Keith is watching him thoughtfully. 

"What?" Shiro asks. 

"Could you really pilot with just one arm?" Keith asks, and Shiro suspects it's not the only thing he was wondering about, but the topic is a welcome distraction. 

Shiro frowns, then says "Yes." When Keith just looks on silently, he explains. "Black would know what I wanted." Then he transfers his gaze to the panel where the bayard would go in. "I think using the bayard would be up to you, though." 

"So you wouldn't really have to be in the seat to have the controls?" 

"I guess not," says Shiro. "But this arrangement's growing on me." Keith is still half in his lap in the pilot's seat, and neither of them is going anywhere. 

It's nice to be in the seat again. It's nice to be able to feel Black underneath him and against his back, instead of just in his mind. It reminds him where he is, who he is. A lot of that's fuzzy at the moment, but he knows clearly that he is a black paladin, whatever else he might be. 

The tether he feels to the Black Lion is all that's keeping Shiro oriented in the chaos of everything that's in his mind. 

* * *

They stop for the night on a mostly empty planet. 

Shiro had slept the night before, and a lot of the day, when everyone else had been preparing for the departure for Earth. But that had been a sleep of complete and utter exhaustion, allowing for nothing but physical rest, while his (current) body processed the stress of channelling the quintessence of an entire new soul. Well, at least, that's Allura's theory. 

Now, he dreams. Shiro-who-succumbed-to-Haggar dreams of what Shiro-who-died experienced. Shiro of the Black Lion dreams of what Shiro of Project Kuron did. It's disjointed and strange and nonsensical, in the way of dreams. 

He dreams of Keith's face burning red-purple, Keith pleading with him to stop, and he wakes up with a strangled shriek. 

Black is a solid presence in his mind. 

"Hey," says the real Keith beside him in the dark, calm and soothing, and his scar is healing well, no longer red and inflamed. "What do you need?" he asks. 

"Just you," Shiro says muzzily, relaxing back into Keith's side. "Just you and Black." 

Keith frowns like he thinks he ought to be offended but isn't. "We're here," he says. 

"I know." 

Black is here. Keith is here. He can hear the soft breathing of Krolia and the wolf nearby. 

Shiro sleeps. 

* * *

This time Shiro wakes up slowly, and he wakes up because Keith is... smooshing his face. 

Shiro frowns. One of Keith's thumbs moves to smooth over the skin between his brows. 

"What are you doing?" he asks groggily. 

"Just... you know... squishing you. You're squishy when you're asleep." 

"Why?" 

"Because it had to be done." Keith's smile is lopsided, and he's pulled his hands away, but he's still just as close. 

"Since when?" Shiro asks. 

Keith shrugs. "I always want to touch you. Just, now I feel like I'm allowed." 

Shiro doesn't dispute that. He just keeps looking at Keith, taking him in. The two of them have come through so much to get here. Face to face, looking into each other's eyes, so close they can feel each other's breath. 

Shiro remembers another moment. Keith's face so close, so lost in love. That scar, a fresh, searing burn. 

Shiro wants to touch that cheek, to make sure it's whole, healing. But right now he doesn't feel like he's allowed. His fingers stop just short of Keith's chin. 

"How are you not scared of this face?" he asks. "After what it said to you? After what I did?" 

Keith's eyes widen. "You remember that?" he asks. 

Shiro can't say a word in answer, can't make his voice work. 

"Listen to me," Keith says a little sharply. "Listen. That wasn't you." 

That gets Shiro unstuck. Gets him to say what's been running through his head. "But it was. He was me. Project Kuron was me. He wasn't any weaker than me. Oh, he made a lot of choices differently than I would have, but believe me when I say every single one of those was because of Haggar pulling on those hooks in his mind." 

Keith shakes his head, a look of slightly lost desperation on his face that Shiro interprets to mean he's grasping at straws. "That doesn't mean you're any more dangerous than you've ever been." 

"It means I have that potential." 

Keith just glares. 

Shiro suddenly knows he's being a little ridiculous. "It means I have those memories, and they feel just like they're mine. Like it was me. He's still in me. All that is still in me." Shiro sighs. "I don't know. It's just a lot to process." 

Keith's arm sneaks around him. "I get that. I'm processing a lot of things too. The fact that the past two years have been like the blink of an eye to the rest of the team. Who I could have been, in a different life. You know my mother wanted to name me Yorak." Keith smirks ruefully. 

Shiro just raises his eyebrows. He's hoping he can draw more out of Keith. It's an old trick, but it still works. 

"She wanted to raise me. She would have done a good job. I got a little taste of what that would have been like while I was gone. But she made another choice, and now that I know why, I can't say she was wrong. Even after everything. I don't like everything I've ever been and everything I've ever done. But it all led me here, so I think it's okay." 

Shiro replies softly, "I think I would have loved Yorak, too." 

Keith's eyes spark like he's won something, and he holds Shiro's face cradled in his hands. "When I told you that I love you," he says, "I told it to Kuron. Knowing everything he'd done. Knowing he'd lost a battle for his mind. I love every version of you, Shiro." He kisses Shiro softly. "Knowing that part of him survived, that he's still in there? It's a good thing." 

Shiro loves every version of Keith he's seen. The dangerous, the hotheaded, the lost, the strong, the confident, the leader. 

So all he says is "Okay." 


End file.
